![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
just another Myspace rant
Apr. 23rd, 2008 02:03 pmWhen someone does a friend request on me on MySpace, and I look and see that they have nothing on their profile indicating a reason why they might find me interesting, and they have over 3000 friends already, many of them added in the last 48 hours -- I'm inclined to think that the reason they friended me is that if I friend them back I'll have a non-stop stream of advertising in my bulletin board.
Yes, I know that this sort of spamming is socially acceptable on MySpace, to the point where it's considered a reason why any self-respecting writer/musician/whatever should get an account. It's also a major contributing factor in why my MySpace account is pretty much moribund. Much though I may hate aspects of LJ, my experience has been that if someone friends me on LJ it is almost always because they are interested in reading my blog, whereas on MySpace it is almost always because they are *only* interested in having me read theirs. One of the reasons for that difference is, I think, that on LJ friending need not be mutual, whereas on MySpace it is explicitly mutual.
Every time I get one of these ads masquerading as a "let's be friends" and stealing my time in checking it out, it makes me feel even more of a grumpy old fart, because I was brought up on usenet and hate spammers with a fiery passion. But it's my Official Author MySpace, so I feel that I can't just batten down the hatches and make it so that you have to know my email address to send me a friend request, because I do get the occasional genuine request from a fan or acquaintance who might not know my email address. Gah.
Yes, I know that this sort of spamming is socially acceptable on MySpace, to the point where it's considered a reason why any self-respecting writer/musician/whatever should get an account. It's also a major contributing factor in why my MySpace account is pretty much moribund. Much though I may hate aspects of LJ, my experience has been that if someone friends me on LJ it is almost always because they are interested in reading my blog, whereas on MySpace it is almost always because they are *only* interested in having me read theirs. One of the reasons for that difference is, I think, that on LJ friending need not be mutual, whereas on MySpace it is explicitly mutual.
Every time I get one of these ads masquerading as a "let's be friends" and stealing my time in checking it out, it makes me feel even more of a grumpy old fart, because I was brought up on usenet and hate spammers with a fiery passion. But it's my Official Author MySpace, so I feel that I can't just batten down the hatches and make it so that you have to know my email address to send me a friend request, because I do get the occasional genuine request from a fan or acquaintance who might not know my email address. Gah.